Last fall, the brutal, unprovoked beating of Zach, an openly gay student at Unioto High School in Chillicothe, Ohio, made national headlines when a video of the incident went viral online.

Today, the ACLU is releasing a new video that features Zach and his mom, Becky Collins. Zach and Becky describe years of unending discrimination and harassment that Zach experienced at school based on his perceived sexual orientation. As the years went on, the abuse only escalated. Becky’s pleas to school officials to protect her son were ignored.

And then the videotaped beating occurred and spread like wildfire online, garnering lots of attention to the challenges lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) students like Zach face each day they go to school.

The type of anti-gay harassment Zach was forced to endure at his school is unacceptable. However, we know that stories like his are far from rare. Similar harassment is taking place across the country, creating a toxic environment that denies LGBT students their right to an equal education.

A 2009 study of more than 7,000 LGBT middle and high school students across the U.S. found that nine out of ten reported experiencing harassment at their school within the past year based on their sexual orientation or gender identity, and two-thirds said they felt unsafe at school because of who they are.

The ACLU of Ohio is representing both Zach and his mother, and is working with his high school to ensure that something like this never happens again. School officials need to proactively address discrimination and harassment against LGBT students when it is brought to their attention, as well as work to foster a campus climate in which all students feel safe and welcome.

In addition, there is a bill pending in Congress which would address this serious problem head on. The Student Non-Discrimination Act would have a profound impact on the lives of LGBT students in the U.S. by ensuring that discrimination and harassment of students on the basis of their real or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity has no place in our country’s public elementary and secondary schools.

Please join the ACLU in urging Congress to pass the Student Non-Discrimination Act to make schools safe and fair for students like Zach. Additionally, please make sure to share this new video with your friends and family, including on Facebook and Twitter!

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Today is National Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA) Day, a day to “strengthen the bond between LGBT people and straight allies” by recognizing the critical role that GSAs play in schools nationwide. GSAs are student-run extracurricular clubs that bring together LGBT and straight students to support each other, promote acceptance and are common in public school districts throughout the nation. They are crucial to providing a safe, supportive environment for LGBT students to educate the school community about homophobia, gender identity and sexual orientation issues.

The ACLU has long fought illegal school efforts to block students from forming GSAs, including most recently in Tennessee and Texas. Additionally, last year, the U.S. Department of Education issued a letter to school districts around the country reinforcing students’ legal right under the federal Equal Access Act to form GSAs. 

Last year, the ACLU released a short video informing students how they could start a GSA in their school.

National GSA Day is also a powerful reminder of the challenges that continue to confront LGBT students nationwide. Discrimination, harassment, and even physical abuse, are often part of LGBT students’ daily lives at school. A 2009 study of more than 7,000 LGBT middle and high school students across the U.S. found that nine out of ten reported experiencing harassment at their school within the past year based on their sexual orientation or gender identity, and two-thirds said they felt unsafe at school because of who they are. Thankfully, there is legislation in Congress that would address this serious problem head on.

The Student Non-Discrimination Act, legislation currently pending in Congress, would have a profound impact in improving the lives of LGBT students in the U.S. by ensuring that discrimination and harassment of students on the basis of their real or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity has no place in our country’s public elementary and secondary schools.

Today, on National GSA Day, please stand with the ACLU in support of LGBT students by urging your member of Congress to support the Student Non-Discrimination Act!

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On Wednesday, GLSEN (the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network) released a new report on anti-LGBT bias, homophobia and gender nonconformity in elementary schools across the country. The report, Playgrounds and Prejudice: Elementary School Climate in the United States, was based on national surveys of 1,065 elementary school students in grades 3-6, as well as 1,099 elementary school teachers in grades K-6.

Some of the report’s key findings include:

• “Nearly one in 10 of elementary students in 3rd to 6th grade indicate that they do not always conform to traditional gender norms/roles. Either they are boys who others sometimes think, act or look like a girl, or they are girls who others sometimes think, act or look like a boy”;
• “Gender nonconforming students are less likely than other students to feel very safe at school, and are more likely than others to indicate they sometimes do not want to go to school because they feel unsafe or afraid there”;
• “Gender nonconforming students are also more likely than others to be called names, made fun of or bullied at least sometimes at school”; and
• “Less than half of teachers indicate that they feel comfortable responding to questions from their students about gay, lesbian or bisexual people. There was a lower level of comfort found among teachers responding to questions from their students about transgender people.”

The report, the first to take a national look at anti-LGBT bias in elementary schools, offers valuable insights into the foundations that are often laid quite early in students’ school lives that later can take on far more serious and tragic implications if left unaddressed.

Harassment and discrimination against gender nonconforming and LGBT youth, as well as those presumed to be, is clearly not something that only surfaces in middle school and high school. It’s really never too early for schools and teachers to work to foster an environment where all students feel safe and welcome. This might help to explain why, according to a recent San Francisco Chronicle article, the number of Gay-Straight Alliances in middle schools nationwide currently stands at roughly 500 (up from a mere few dozen just three years ago).

The report also shows that LGBT and gender nonconforming students are a vulnerable population in our nation’s schools, including those at the elementary level. This is a nationwide problem, impacting students coast-to-coast. As such, the solution needs to be national in scope.

The Student Non-Discrimination Act, legislation currently pending in Congress, would have a profound impact in improving the lives of LGBT students in the U.S. by ensuring that discrimination and harassment of students on the basis of their real or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity has no place in our country’s public elementary and secondary schools. Please stand with the ACLU in support of LGBT students by urging your members of Congress to support the Student Non-Discrimination Act today.

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On Thursday, subscribers to the conservative Weekly Standard received an email fundraising pitch from the president of a fringe anti-gay organization, Public Advocate of the United States, which directed tremendous venom at the Student Non-Discrimination Act, labeling it the “Homosexual Classrooms Act.” The email, first reported by Justin Elliott writing on Salon.com, opens with the following outrageous and hate-filled accusation, which would be laughable if it were not so deeply offensive:

Radical homosexuals have infiltrated Congress and want to indoctrinate children and eliminate traditional values from America while creating a society based on sexual promiscuity.

Because the ACLU has been a longtime champion of the Student Non-Discrimination Act and lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) youth, we could not allow the vicious anti-gay misinformation in this fundraising email to go unchallenged. After all, one of the brilliant aspects of the First Amendment is the ability to fight hateful and misleading speech with a counter response.

The Student Non-Discrimination Act, which is currently pending in both chambers of Congress, would have a profound impact in improving the lives of LGBT students in the U.S. by ensuring that discrimination and harassment of students on the basis of their sexual orientation or gender identity has no place in our country’s public elementary and secondary schools. This is a goal that should, and does, transcend party affiliation and ideology.

The email goes on to list what it labels a “laundry list of anti-family provisions.” The problem of course is that nothing on their list is actually true. For example, the email claims that the legislation would force a pro-LGBT curriculum on private and religious schools. Well, guess what? The Student Non-Discrimination Act only applies to public K-12 schools nationwide. In addition, the legislation specifically includes language restating the legal right of students to form extracurricular Bible clubs in public schools.

About the only thing this email gets right are the very impressive cosponsorship counts both bills currently have – 34 in the Senate and 150 in the House. Perhaps it is this support, made possible in no small way by the advocacy of tens of thousands of ACLU members and activists across the country, which has the anti-gay fringe so worried.

If groups like Public Advocate of the United States think they’ll be able to defeat the Student Non-Discrimination Act using misrepresentations and the language of hate, well, I think they have already lost. I take comfort in knowing that the vast majority of Americans would find the language in this fundraising pitch to be offensive in the extreme and utterly repugnant. While this fringe anti-gay fundraising pitch contains nothing but misinformation, the problems facing LGBT students in our nation’s schools are all too real. Discrimination, harassment, and even physical abuse, are often part of LGBT students’ daily lives at school. A 2009 study of more than 7,000 LGBT middle and high school students across the U.S. found that nine out of ten reported experiencing harassment at their school within the past year based on their sexual orientation or gender identity, and two-thirds said they felt unsafe at school because of who they are. Nearly one-third skipped at least one day of school within the previous month because of concerns for their safety. LGBT youth are also at a significantly increased risk for suicide related to mental health issues that often arise from poor treatment and discrimination in schools.

Please stand with the ACLU in rejecting anti-gay hate and misinformation and urge your members of Congress to support the Student Non-Discrimination Act.

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